1. Field of the Invention the present invention relates generally to a weatherstrip for an automotive vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to a weatherstrip structure for an automotive vehicle which can prevent an excessive reaction force from being applied to a corresponding automotive components while ensuring a highly reliable sealing effect therebetween.
2. Description of the Background Art
A weatherstrip for sealing a space between, for example, an opening edge of a vehicular panel and a hatch roof has been proposed as shown in FIGS. 1 to 8.
In FIG. 1, an automotive roof panel 1 has a pair of openings at which a pair of hatch roofs 3 are respectively fitted through corresponding weatherstrips so as to enhance natural lighting into a vehicle body. FIG. 2 shows an enlarged perspective view showing a portion by a dotted line II in FIG. 1. The hatch roof 3 includes a plastic panel section 3a and a translucent glass section 3b. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 which are cross-sections taken along lines III--III and IV--IV in FIG. 2, respectively, the roof panel 1 has a stepped section at a peripheral edge of the opening. The stepped section includes an upright wall 1a, a bottom wall 1b and an upright flange 1c. A weatherstrip 5 includes a welt 5a made of a solid rubber and a hollow sponge rubber sealing member 5b fixed onto the welt 5a. The welt 5 is firmly fitted onto the upright flange 1c by tightly holding the upright flange 1c between a plurality of grasping lips.
A weatherstrip 7 is further provided between a peripheral edge of the hatch roof and the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1. Specifically, the weatherstrip 7 has a main body 7a, a seal lip 7b which is continuous with the main body 7a and is elastically pressed onto an upper surface of the plastic section 3a or the translucent glass section 3b of the hatch roof 3 at its peripheral edge so as to tightly hold same in cooperation with the main body 7a, and a seal lip 7c which is continuous with the main body 7a and is provided at a side opposite to the seal lip 7b with respect to the main body 7a. The seal lip 7c has a substantially C-shaped cross-section and is elastically pressed against the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1 when the hatch roof 3 is mounted on the roof panel 1. As shown in FIG. 3, a reinforcing member 9 is fixedly inserted at a predetermined portion of the main body 7a.
A shown in FIG. 5, a space 11 is formed between the main body 7a and the seal lip 7c. The space 11 is open downward when the hatch roof 3 is mounted onto the roof panel 1, and includes therein a plurality of ribs 13. Each rib 13 is in the form of a rubber plate, and as shown in FIG. 6, each rib 13 is integrally formed with the main body 7a and the seal lip 7c and extends therebetween in a direction indicated by a line X. The line X extends in perpendicular to a line Y extending in a longitudinal direction of the main body 7a and indicates a direction along which a compressive force is applied to the rib 13 via the seal lip 7c from the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1. Accordingly, each rib 13 extends between the main body 7a and the seal lip 7c in the direction of the compressive force applied to the rib 13 via the seal lip 7c from the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1.
As appreciated and as seen from FIG. 7, by providing the ribs 13 between the main body 7a and the seal lip 7c, a reaction force of the seal lip 7c against the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1 is ensured so as to provide a highly reliable sealing effect or water-tightness between the seal lip 7c and the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1, i.e. between the inside and the outside of the vehicle body. Further, deformation of the seal lip 7c as indicated by imaginary lines in FIG. 8 is effectively prevented by means of the rigidity of the ribs 13.
In the foregoing background art, however, when the compressive force applied to the ribs 13 via the seal lip 7c from the upright wall 1a of the roof panel 1 is set large so as to ensure the highly reliable sealing effect between the seal lip 7c and the upright wall 1a, since each of the ribs 13 is arranged extending in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the main body 7a or in the direction of the compressive force applied from the upright wall 1a, the reaction force of the ribs 13 becomes excessively large to make it laborious to mount or dismount the hatch roof 3 from or onto the roof panel 1.